


No need for Courage Anymore

by Link-Trashart (FanFiction_Artist_Prototype)



Series: Bird Dad Teba [2]
Category: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Angst and Tragedy, Bird Dad Teba, Canonical Character Death, Link (Legend of Zelda) Has PTSD - Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Link (Legend of Zelda) Needs a Hug, Non-Canonical Character Death, Other, Post-Calamity Ganon, References to Depression, Reincarnation, Temporary Character Death, What do you call it when your cross lifetimes nemesis teaches you to look after yourself
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-29
Updated: 2020-11-29
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:33:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,155
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27764542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FanFiction_Artist_Prototype/pseuds/Link-Trashart
Summary: Calamity Ganon is defeated, and with it Hyrule may rise to it's glory again.The kingdom prospers, the people cheer an each race comes together to rebuild, to make themselves strong and to create bonds that not even another Calamity could possibly break. The Princess shines, her Knight...Well, a Kingdom at peace is no place for a warrior.
Relationships: Daruk & Link & Mipha & Revali & Urbosa & Zelda (Legend of Zelda), Ganondorf & Link (Legend of Zelda), Great Deku Tree & Link (Legend of Zelda), Riju & Prince Sidon & Teba & Yunobo
Series: Bird Dad Teba [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2063796
Comments: 8
Kudos: 140





	No need for Courage Anymore

"You've returned..." Link could feel his body shaking as he made his way over to the Great Deku Tree ( ~~ _his father_~~ _),_ Master Sword strapped to his back like a shrine weight, "You look upset. Tell me dear child what troubles you?"

He doesn't get the chance to form the words.

Legs giving way beneath him Link can't even summon the will to make a noise of pain as his knees hit stone, the Kokiri scramble closer calling his name but he _knows_ it isn't Hylian common they're spewing. It's something much older, far older than he has any right to understand but some far off part of him does; a part of him that hasn't been around for at least two lifetimes now remembers, it remembers and it sooths but it is not enough. Nothing will ever be enough.

"I- I can't-"

_I can't do this._

_I can't live anymore._

_I cannot live, because what do I have to live for?_

Everything gets stuck in his throat again, and he hates it! HE HATES IT HE HATES IT HE HATES IT! Words have never come easy to him, that he has learnt, but why now? Why at the one point in which he could possibly talk to someone who would understand? Why when he could tell someone that had seen him before, who had seen him more times than Link can remember meeting him.

Why was Hylia punishing him? Hadn't he fixed his mistake? Hadn't he _saved_ Hyrule and Zelda? 

Hadn't he suffered enough?

Just because he held the triforce of courage did not mean that he could handle every burden the goddess pressed upon his shoulders. 

Link didn't want this to continue. What did he have in this Hyrule? _What in the goddesses names was there for him here?_

A Kingdom who did not need a knight? A Queen who did not need a knight? Citizens who did not need knights, citizens who needed craftsmen, builders, farmers, citizens who needed people who could live their lives.

Hyrule was prospering, the ravaged Kingdom was being rebuilt; stronger this time, more powerful than before. Each of the five races were coming together, building upon frayed bonds and ensuring that even another Calamity could not weaken them. Where was Link needed in any of that?

He couldn't build - he couldn't create. He'd barely kept himself _alive_ for half of his journey; only getting by because he'd been so lucky as he threw things in a pot and hoped that it wouldn't kill him, Link was born to fight. The Hero's spirit was only ever reborn when it was needed, he had been born to fight Ganon and he'd failed the first time but he was here now, he had beaten him now. So what was there for him?

Link knew he was a weapon, he had no other purpose for existing other than to complete his role as the Hero. He knew this, maybe once he had accepted it... but Link had _died_ and he'd _failed_ and there were thousands of people who would possibly never gain peace knowing that the Calamity no longer plagued their homes... He was a faulty weapon, prone to breaking and requiring smithing to keep going but now he was to be hung on a wall like some kind of _decoration._

What life did he have anymore? 

Did he even want a life anymore?

"My boy, please _son_ tell me what is wrong." Something shifts in his chest and he manages to force his eyes up to the Great Deku. He feels so much older now and yet so so very young as well.

_"Pa I can't do this anymore. What's a hero without a quest?"_

His voice does not sound like his own, his words are not Hylian, and yet he knows that that is what needs to be said. He knows, that _his father_ will understand what he is asking.

 _Fi (when did he remember her name? ~~When did he forget it~~ ) _hums from her place on his back, it's something that is also beyond comprehensible Hylian but it's closer this time. Ancient Hylian rather than Kokoro and he swears he knows the lyrics, can feel the impulse to pull out an ocarina and begin playing along. But he doesn't know how to play an ocarina, he's never even held one. But Fi hums on, the Kokiri hold him close and he shakes as the Great Deku deliberates his question; for even someone as old as his father can't possibly know everything.

-*-

Teba's talons click against the new marble flooring of Hyrule castle's vast entrance hall and he doesn't _care_ that the other 'champions' (how can they possibly receive such a title when not once have they wielded the beasts - for Hylia's sake Teba's tried to bomb Vah Medoh out of the _sky_ he must be the last Rito the beast wants to wield it) are sending him looks of worry or of agitation. They are being kept waiting by the Princess and her knight; and he _knows_ Link - the fledgling might spontaneously decide that he's going on a trip half way across the damn kingdom but he at least lets someone know!

Link does not just disappear into that stupid cloud of blue light without at least a note, or something being done to let people know that they do not need to worry for him. The boy woke up one hundred years after dying with no memories and proceeded to risk his all to save Zelda; it's more than abundently clear the kid cares about her so there's no way in the Goddesses' graces that Link wouldn't let her know he was going somewhere, there's no way Link would _ditch_ this meeting when Teba knows how closely his kid holds them all to his heart.

"If you continue to pace, her majesty will be forced to buy more marble for her floor. Your talons will leave this place looking like the Boar has just crashed through again." Chief Riju's words are not meant to anger him, the Gerudo have such a way of speaking though that it makes his very feathers stand on end all the while.

"This isn't like Link. He would not just leave without telling anyone-"

"The Champion has certainly done it enough-"

Rito cannot snarl, not the way every other race can. They don't have the right jaws, and all their beaks don't open wide enough but Teba believes he does his best impression of it when he cuts the young chief off, " _My kid_ has never left Rito Village without making sure nobody would worry about him going missing! So I'm very sorry your majesty that he never felt like anyone in the Gerudo capital cared enough to worry about him if he was gone!"

His words echo around the entrance hall and are disturbed by Zelda walking through the doors on the balcony above, her face falling as she catches his words.

Zelda's face twists between sorrow and frustration, "He's gone. Nobody has seen him; we will just have to continue without him."

Anger churns in his gut - his fledgling is out who knows where without telling a soul and he is expected to sit through a meeting about a divine beast that deserves nothing more than to sleep after suffering for the past hundred years.

"I'm not standing around-"

A fin on his shoulder cuts him off and he tries to snarl again up at the Zora Prince. Because this is meant to be one of his kids closest friends - he never shut up about how cool he found the Prince, about how Tulin would probably love Sidon- and he's trying to stop him from going after him, "My friend, Link will be fine! He's a strong person, the worst that will happen is that he's lost track of time fighting monsters-"

_"YOUR HIGNESS! YOUR HIGHNESS THE - IT'S THE LOST WOODS!"_

_-*-_

_"So, we meet again Hero."_

**_"Ganondorf."_ **

The figure pauses in their advances, and Link can barely keep his head up high enough to watch them, his chest is constricted but breathing is the furthest thing from his mind. Before him stands someone who is familiar to someone inside him far older than he is. He doesn't know who Ganondorf is; he's never heard of him but someone recognizes him - someone speaks through his mouth and whoever it is has surprised the Gerudo.

_"It has been... over ten thousand years since I was last called by my name. It is cathartic to know that you haven't truly forgotten about me."_

Ganondorf walks closer, he's stood above where Link is trapped on his knees. Foreboding and towering Link feels like he's been here before, like he's been knocked to the ground before staring upwards at Ganondorf but the same thing that recognizes the man before him tells him that they have never been safer in this man's presence. There is a strange relief in that knowledge.

 _ **"It's one of the only things I haven't forgotten..."**_ Flopping back on the ground he felt nothing as his head hit where he thought stone had existed, **_"I'm sorry I couldn't help you. Don't know what I couldn't help you with but I know I need to apologise."_**

_"How old are you this time Hero?"_

He brought his hands up above his head, counting on his fingers, _**"The first time around I was seventeen. Then I died."**_ Ganondorf chokes on his own breath and Link watches the Gerudo for a few seconds before continuing, _**"I didn't beat the Calamity the first time, so it took a hundred years to make me whole again - I think the guardian's laser destroyed half my body... not really sure if that makes me fully hylian anymore."**_

_"You're chatty this time around. Though I do have to wonder how you managed to meet me here."_

**_"I died again."_ **

Silence swallows them, and Link gets the impression that Ganondorf wasn't expecting to hear that; that the Gerudo wasn't ever expecting to see him again but especially in a situation like this.

_"Why isn't Zelda bringing you back!? The Goddess' power is enough to keep you- you just said something brought you back after a hundred years-"_

**_"Pa isn't letting her get to me and Fi is making sure nobody helps."_ **

_"....Pa...? The Great Deku Tree!? It's letting you die?"_ He shrugs and that seems to upset Ganondorf even more, " _Why!? What does anyone gain from letting the hero die!?"_

_**"The Calamity is gone - Zelda doesn't need a knight. What's the point of living as a** **trophy** **weapon? I remember fragments of my past lives than I do the one I had one hundred years ago. What's - what's the point? You gave up reincarnation, so Zelda and I are going to die and waste away in the void anyway - Zelda's got her whole life to live..."** _

_"And you don't!? You're born with the triforce of courage and you'd throw your life away!? For what!?"_

**_"I WAS SUPPOSED TO DIE A HUNDRED YEARS AGO!"_** He forced himself to sit up, body feeling more and more numb, _**"I WOKE UP WITH NOTHING NOT EVEN MY OWN NAME AND I WAS TOLD TO SAVE A KINGDOM I DIDN'T KNOW! I AM NOT THE HERO OF COURAGE; I'M JUST WHATEVER THE FUCK THE SHRINE SHOVED IN HIS CORPSE!"**_

-*-

"LINK! No, no, no, no! Link no! Come on fledgling, come open your damn eyes Link! What am I going to tell Saki or Tulin? Come on hatchling, you can't go out like this. You're supposed to grow old, and weary boned... not like this - _not again-"_

"His is already too far gone, warrior of the wind. Our son has found peace-"

_"PEACE!? **OUR** SON!? MY SON IS DEAD AND YOU- YOU STOPPED US FROM REACHING HIM! HOW CAN YOU DARE CLAIM TO BE HIS FATHER - I KNEW SOMETHING WAS WRONG. Come on Link, please- please Link. Come on son, come on we'll go back home and Saki will make your favourite but you've got to **open your eyes!** "_

_-*-_

_"Can you not hear them Hero? Your family is calling for you."_

**_"It's not like I can go back anyway. You gave up reincarnation, there's no second chances now. Our souls are linked. As long as the spirit of demise can no longer reincarnate neither can the spirit of the hero. Good. Nobody else needs to deal with this fight."_ **

_"You've got a FATHER calling for you hero- how are you so deaf!? You have a Father, a Mother and a brother why do you refuse to even try and return to them?"_

**_"I have always lived for others. I want to die for myself."_ **

_"But is living for your family not living for yourself?"_

_-*-_

_"Please, please, please, Hylia please don't do this. Hasn't he done enough for you!?"_

Teba's wings flapped away when the chest under them jerked upright.


End file.
